Hotels need communication tools that fit their needs

BREA, CA—Telecommunications equipment in hotels has transformed throughout the years. With technology companies focused on solutions that enable members of a hotel staff to communicate via texting and chat applications—and integrating those solutions with guest-facing platforms—the way hotel teams communicate has evolved. But there’s still a need for oral communication—and much like consumers prefer smartphones that are phone, web, work, and entertainment solutions in one device, hotels prefer a one-stop shop when it comes to communications.

Dave George, president of Pryme Radio, which has manufactured professional-grade wireless accessories for mobile communications users for more than 25 years, said, “About three or four years ago, we started to see some interesting trends with our hotel customers, where they were moving away from two-way radios and more toward smart devices; they were doing that because a number of very powerful hotel management software applications were being made available for those devices that would allow them to have far more sophisticated management of their rooms, maintenance, valet, room service, etc.”

Push to Talk Over Cellular (POC) app development has helped streamline communications throughout hotels, from front desk to housekeeping. “That was a fairly natural evolution for them because any major hotel today has good WiFi for their guests, so they already have a good communications infrastructure,” George continued, adding that communication services started to migrate from radio personnel to an IT staffer.

Once hotels made the decision to deploy an app-based hotel management system, they needed a way to overlay voice communications onto those devices. “They still wanted the same kinds of things they were buying from us before: some wanted low-cost disposable headsets and some wanted the high-end applications,” George said.

George noted that, since the company makes all of its products, it works with hoteliers to find the right fit for their needs. “Because hotels go through high turnover of housekeeping staff, and nobody wants to put a used earphone in their ear, [we had clients who]wanted quick change earpieces and low-cost kits, so if people stole them they wouldn’t be out a lot of money. We developed both of those kinds of products for our hotel customers,” George said. “We had a lot of requests from casino customers that they wanted earpieces designed to block out background noise, so we developed special earpieces that would still give them some situational awareness so they could hear stuff around them, but it cut the amount of background noise down so they didn’t have any hearing damage and, also, there was more comfort for the users.

“The industry is moving more toward voice over IP, using the hotel’s WiFi network and getting away from two-way radios,” George said. “And I think there are a huge number of really interesting software applications being developed by other companies… It’s all going to be app-driven and there’s going to be more and more sophistication.” HB